New World

41 | The Times To Come

Lila loved Blackthorn Hall. She especially loved reading Tatiana Blackthorn's diary and laughing at it under the covers at night. She'd discovered it when pulling up rotten floorboards with Julian banging away at similar ones in the next room.

What she didn't love was the hands on her shoulders.

They'd come to the conclusion that the house was inhabited by a ghost. If she turned around sometimes, either to look at something or clean up, she'd feel a hand on her back, or the tug of her hair. When she brought it up, Julian and Emma agreed. They'd seen things too.

It was quite rainy most days. Lila had a habit of sitting at the rotting windows in the old ballroom and looking out as the salty liquid pounded the windows and the wind howled outside. She'd wrap her hands around a cup of hot chocolate and pull her knees to her chest to just sit back and take it in.

She needed the break. Thankfully she'd graduated the Academy months ago and now had a job as a nurse, with Catarina Loss, at hospital in New York.

But she'd taken temporary leave, because her head was, as some homeless guy she'd stopped to talk to had said: ruined. Julian decided in this time to take her under his wing once more like she was twelve, not eighteen. She explained how she felt and the tears that had stopped but—

Was it stupid to still be caught up over Livvy's death? Her siblings seemed to have gotten through it was ease. There was the initial mourning, then the getting used to her not being around, and finally the acceptance. Lila still was hung up in the initial mourning stage, like a tree in the road she couldn't climb over no matter how much she tried. Livvy's blood and breath stained her hands, and she hadn't even touched her in her dying moments.

She'd taken work leave. Catarina Loss kept in contact, and she had a strange friendship with Nathaniel Naylour, the nephew of the guy at the Academy who'd once taught her Latin. He too was immortal, though through an accident. He looked young, but had to be around eighty by mortal standards.

"Enjoying yourself?"

She practically jumped and turned her head to the doorway. Julian leaned against it, a blanket over his arm as he looked at her. Lila smiled and held her hand out to take the blanket as he approached.

"Yeah, I'm having so much fun," she drawled.

"The rain seems pretty peaceful," he nodded slowly, sitting beside her. She'd previously swept and cleaned the area she sat in. "Haven't paid much attention since we've been digging out books."

Lila nodded. "Yeah. It is, really."

There was a beat of silence, before Julian knelt on one knee beside her. "You look so tired, Lila." His hand reached out to brush back her hair. She'd grown her bangs out and now always had her hair tucked behind her ears so the remaining pieces would frame her face. She could finally look at herself in the mirror without wanting to cry.

"I'm always tired," she tilted her head and sent him a small smile.

"I know." His eyes flickered over her, and she really felt horrible. "I still think you should see someone."

Now Lila recoiled back, looking away. "You think I'm ill."

"I think you need professional help, yeah." His words came out on a breath, trying to make the conversation light.

"You want me to see a mundane?" She raised an eyebrow, and Julian managed a shrug of his shoulders.

"It'll help."

"I don't think I could explain how Annabel Blackthorn murdered Livvy, Jules. It's not coming out my mouth and I'm not saying anything to anyone but you."

"I can't help you, Lila," he was bordering on desperation. "I'm not a therapist or anything. I'm just your brother."

She found herself stepping out into the dark that night. The rain was still pounding the city and the wind howled but the road in the distance lit with orange-tinted lights offered some kind of solace that the world was awake with her, and in her jacket, Lila shivered.

The fields surrounding the manor house had been dusted with bits of old wood and tiles over the last few weeks, a result of the ongoing reparations to the building. Objects crunched underfoot as she made her way further into the fields, letting the soaked grass slickly slip across her ankles.

Out here, away from the city centre, the stars could typically be seen with the naked eye; Lila's favourite part of residing in London for the time being. Now, when she tilted her head back, all she received was an eyeful of dirty clouds gently glowing grey and a pattering of rain on her face.

Nights like these dampened her mood further. And Lila couldn't help but wonder how things might have been had they been different.

What would Livvy be like now?

Would Lila still be friends with Kit?

Would Ty be living at home instead of some faraway, reclusive mountains?

She couldn't help but dream, and wonder.

Nothing could have prepared her for the happenings that came next.

—

EDITED/ 30/01/2023
originally published/ 2022